Vista Help

I have a Sony Vaio and have Windows Vista installed. I have been running into problems every week or 2 months if I'm lucky. After couple weeks or months (if im lucky as i said) my computer goes all haywire. After I shut it down and try to restart, it never loads up past the Vista loading screen and goes into this loop. Or sometimes, it starts up but the light that indicates that your computer is processing/loading something is solid as if something is loading up. If i try to open any folder/programs/etc etc it takes about 10 seconds for something to simple to open and the light still stays solid as if its doing something and computer keeps making the loading/processing sound. As i explained earlier sometimes it goes into a loop at startup and displays some x000008300 ( i chose a random number) file is missing. I have been reinstalling the OS over and over sometimes in 2 months or even after 2-3 weeks. Its always the same reason and problem. Someone told me it cant be the harddrive because it wont last as long. Im really fed up with this. Its time consuming and really annoying having to start fresh and lose files/programs etc etc. I have Bitdefender 2010 installed as my Anti-virus and it doesnt detect any viruses and deletes the ones it does.

I hope someone understands what i explained and knows whats going on and can be of some help. if anyone needs more clarification, i can clarify. i'd apprecaite the help. thx!!!

For a quick diagnostic uninstall BitDefender 2010. It has been causing quite a number of issues.

See if this brings stability. if not we'll take it from there. You also could be still infected. Before uninstalling BD 2010, go online and run the free ESET NOD32 online scan (free and safe; you'll have to allow them to install an Active X; do so).

* Also, does Sony provide diagnostic tools? And if so does it have one for harddrives? If you have one then run it.

Hey first of all thanks for responding. Really appreciate it, you have no idea.

secondly, yes, I dont have Bitdefender installed anymore because of as of last night I had to reinstall my OS due to the problem/troubleshooting i posted. So its fresh now.

the laptop did come with various diagnostic test tools but when i reinstalled the OS, all Sony tests, plugins, etc etc were erased. i guess because i used another cd to install it from and not just a factory reset?!!!

right now it seems to be running fine, because its freshly installed. i dont understand what causes to do what it does, maybe like you said Bitdefender?!!

do you know any anti-virus software thats up there with Bitdefender that I can use besides Kaspersky (didnt like it much), because i dont have one installed as of right now?

a side note, in the last 6 months, this is probably the 10 or 11th time i reinstalled the OS due to the same problem. Sometimes i didnt have Bitdefender i used Vipre or Kaspersky. I thought it might have been because i had a torrent program "UTORRENT" on here because if i used that to download something, it would stop and say "cyclic redudency error". i deleted that. When i had the Sony Diagnostic test features i did run the tests (all of them actually, memory, hard drive, video, etc etc) and it didnt come up with anything except "system passed".

also, i dont know if this might be of any use, but if i try to run a cd or dvd it will run, but really really slow like i can hear the drive making the "ready to load" sound and then stop suddenly, then again "ready to load" sound and then stop suddenly several times. but for some cd/dvds it works fine. i dont know why thought.

i was thinking maybe one of my chips inside my laptop is/are loose perhaps?! i dropped my laptop (not to hard) but slightly on the tiles in my living room. maybe that shook up things?! idk, just throwing info out there to help you guys diagnose what maybe the problem.

yes i can use them. for example, when i try to use my OS installation cd, it takes forever to "copy files to computer" compared to when it used to take only about 5 -10 minutes. now it takes about a hour. but if i use another cd, that one works fine. loads up and everything. on another cd, it didnt even read that one or wasnt even able to detect it.

so idk whats going on. but my biggest concern is just when it messes up like i described above, because its a hassle trying to reload/reinstall everyting back up.

Hey, ONCE AGAIN my computer messed and I had to re-install the WHOLE OS again. This time it was working fine till i turned it off and restarted it. It went thru the whole start-up process but before getting to the log-in screen it didnt change just a blank black screen. After waiting several minutes, it restarted itself and displayed a message saying something along the lines of " Windows could not start due to new hardware/driver installation. please insert your OS cd and reinstall or run dianositc repair" something along those lines, i dont quite remember the exact thing.

I tried putting in my Vista cd and repairing it and nothing worked. Does anyone know why this happened ONE MORE TIME?!!?? THIS IS GETTING REALLY FRUSTRATING!! Luckliy, I transferred my files to my external hard-drive but i have boards coming up this Saturday and I really need my computer to practice questions and what not and its a hassle when it messes up every other day and i have to reinstall the OS. very time consuming.